A Breath of Fresh Air

For the past 4 years, I have had the privilege of serving on our Stake Young Women's Camp Committee.  Each year, the girls in our church between the ages of 12-18 attend Girls Camp for a week up at our beautiful stake property.  This has by far been one of my favorite callings ever.  I love being at our Stake Property.  It is so beautiful and peaceful.  I also love spending time with the beautiful Young Women.  They are amazing.

I always have a great experience at camp and this year was no different.  My spiritual bucket was filled and overflowing.  It was very clear to all of us that the message our Heavenly Father wanted to get across to these girls is that
1.  He loves them very much.
2.  He knows them individually and wants them to succeed.

The spirit up at camp is always very strong, but this year in particular it was almost tangible.  Through conversations with people that I love and having the spirit touch my heart, I realized something very important.  Now is the time to step up to the plate and choose which side you are on.  No more fence sitting.  If you are on the Lord's side then you need to be on the Lord's side.  He needs us to help each other.  He needs us to serve each other and help others feel of His love.  He needs us to have that "mighty change of heart" (Alma 5:14-26) and to "receive his image in our countenances".  He needs us to pledge our love and our commitment to Him.

Every year at camp, Thursday night is Bishopric night.  This meant that my cute hubby was able to come up and spend some time with the girls in our ward.  We always have some sort of game that the Bishop's play and the girls love watching them be silly.

It is always sad to leave camp.  I hate leaving that stake property.  It really is such a peaceful, beautiful place and I always feel so good there.  But I was excited to get home to see my kiddos who survived the week under Josh's watchful (or sometimes unwatchful) eye.  ;)  I missed them and I missed Mark a lot, but I know that Girls Camp is where I needed to be.

The weekend before Girls Camp was our Annual Family Reunion.  Mark's family has this reunion every year and we always have a blast.  For the past few years, we have been renting a cabin that we can all stay in together.  I love watching the kids run around the cabin when we first get there, scoping out all of the good hiding places for Hide and Seek, figuring out their sleeping arrangements and then settling in to play game after game.  It is so much fun.  It rained on us most of the time, but we still managed to have a wonderful time.

I still have one more opportunity to breath in the fresh air.  We are heading up the mountain again this coming weekend to spend time at the Heber Valley Camp where Mark's parents served their mission a couple of years ago.  It is going to be a lot of fun.  I hope I can build up some energy reserves this week so I can play volleyball and do a bit of hiking.
I think when we get home from that, I will officially be camped out...
but I love it and I love that I am here to do it. :)